From Virginia to Rome
by xHannahNicolex
Summary: Abby and Townsend talk while the girls are asleep in Rome. Before cammie goes for the walk and set in GG5. Minor spoilers for the book obviously.


Walking back to the bed I had made on the couch once I had checked on the girls, I couldn't help but feel a notion of nervousness. I wasn't worried Cameron or her friends were going to get hurt as it was my mission to prevent that, so naturally, my life would be put at risk before them. It was more of a 'surrounding nervous'. You could possibly say because I don't like Rome, it holds some... fond memories but I had to admit it was probably more to do with the fact Abigail was here too. I went to sit before noticing Abigail in my place, spread out across the couch yet eyes locked on the wall. I knew what this mean't far too well; she was in deep thought.

"What on earth are you doing, Abigail? If you can't remember, you have the bed. I have the sofa."  
"Shush... you'll wake them up..." her eyes didn't move from the wall, they barely blinked and her voice was soft and weak, with of course, the perfected whisper to keep from the girls in the other room from hearing if they should wake.

"They are sound asleep... Don't worry.." Copying the whisper I took place on the arm of the couch by where her long legs were dangling. "I'm being serious now, you should go to bed..."

She didn't reply normally, she whispered in more of a muttered groan "When AREN'T you serious, Townsend..."

It was a rhetorical question, nonetheless, but I didn't expect anything different from her. I didn't answer her rhetorical question but I needed to ask her again. I softened my tone and watched her. It was an empty, exhausted and completely drained look she held as her eyes battled to keep in the same position.

"Abby...please go to bed..."  
"You finally learnt my name instead of calling me Abigail, which may I add, is incredibly annoying. No one calls me it for a reason." She swung her legs around and sat up on this note, but not moving her gaze from the wall. I simply let myself drop into the space next to her, where her feet once were.

"What do you want, Townsend?"  
"I want you to go to bed."  
"I'm not tired. Sorry if you are so tired that you can only think of yourself. You go take the bed." Her sarcasm was bitter and piercing, which normally, I would expect, but we were alone and it was a different setting to usual.  
"No. I am not tired. You should know of all people, I am never tired. I am concerned for you. You need your sleep"  
"No, you just love controlling me."  
At this, she turned her head to me and glared. Whatever she was thinking was still there, her mind was still occupied with it.

"Go to bed, Abigail"  
"Stop trying to control me, Edward"  
"Stop being so bloody stubborn then"  
"Maybe I'm not tired like you never are?"  
"But we both know you would be lying then."  
"Not really..."  
"Yes really..."  
"You are so God Damn annoying."  
"Why thank you ever so much"  
"You can't pull off sarcasm, Edward"  
"Isnt that a shame, Abigail"  
"Seriously. Cut it out."  
"I have nothing to, as you say, 'cut out'. You are the one with something on your mind causing this foul mood"  
"I am NOT in a foul mood"  
"Denial isn't the answer, Abigail"

Her speech changed from her quiet whisper to a sharp and bitter snarl through gritted teeth  
"I don't know what I could have ever saw in you!"  
"Ah... and there it is... what's been bugging you all night."

I said it smooth and calm but to think that she had been thinking about us knocked me off guard. If anything, I believed she would have been worried for her neice, or the girls, or perhaps an elderly woman on the street, since she was always one to care.

She just scoffed looking ahead again, going back to her comatose thinking state.  
"If you are going to do that, go to the room I given up for you, Abigail"  
"What was that move anyway, you giving the room to me? Flattery? Because you are shit at flattery."

I couldn't help mutter a simple "Here we go.." before she began her rant.  
"All you ever do is get recognised as this perfect MI6 spy with all your handsome looks and ways to charm girls on top of this big 'anti-circle' thing you have going on. It's pathetic, Townsend. It's really annoying too. Like seriously, there is nothing so special about you."

I kept calm. None of her words had hurt me or affected me. I knew these things. These stereotypes I get given. I will admit, I was slightly shocked however to realise Abigail had succumbed to believing them..  
"So is this what you kept bottled up all the way here?" I kept my eyes calm, still watching her expressions as I pushed myself ever so slightly forward to capture a better view.  
"No..." her head then turned and she looked at me softly, catching my eyes on her. "Why are you here Townsend? I mean... Why you? Why are you at Gallagher?"  
"Why thank you for the flatte-"  
"Edward..." Her warning tone stopped my sarcasm. Whatever it was she wished to say, she was only going to say it once and she wanted me to listen. "Why did you come back to Gallagher? Why not someone else? Especially at this time... after-... everything with us..."  
"I have always been one of the closest to the circle. I came because of the circle." It wasn't a lie. I was the first people CIA and MI6 had came too. Joe was out the field and I was the only one left with enough knowledge and connections to help. They saw me as the perfect match to send in, especially since they knew I had a history with the Cameron sisters as well as Joe and Matt.  
"No you're not... Matt and Joe have always been the closest. They were at least a month away from cracking them."  
"I said one..."  
"You are NOT one. You have got nowhere near as close as Matt got"  
My temper began to boil as I hated being compared. I tried. That's all I could do. Besides, Matt went MIA and is suspected dead... I'm trying not to be either of those. "Well I am very sorry that I am not as good as-..." She cut me off fast and didn't move her eyes from mine, seeming to look deeper as she whispered quieter, only to say these words once.  
"But I don't want you to get as close as Matt... if what is feared is true, I definitely don't want you to go as close as he did..." I knew what she feared; Matt's death. It was something we all feared but she seemed to be even more so directing the fact she didn't want me to die.

My eyes joined hers with this comment as a silence filled up between us. Nothing much more had to be said. There was no much more to be said, we could only go with the flow but not forget to be cautious. "You know, your moods change like the wind, Abigail"  
"And you know..." Her head moved then, closer to mine, as her lips barely an inch away from mine glazed over. I new this tactic however, I knew this wasn't a kiss, this was a tease. Abby was hiding her emotions with her natural giddy self. "You are still an ass... but I will always care for you..." she stood, still looking at me then bent down kissing my forehead slow and long, with a shaky smile as if to hold back tears. "Night, Townsend"  
"Goodnight, Abigail"

She stopped in the doorway as I still watched. She didn't need to turn to speak ."You know-... did you know I was going to be at Gallagher?"  
I didn't lie and nodded my head. ''Of course I did... Been hacking into CIA servers all my life, didn't take me 5 minutes to find out where you were.  
"It only takes me a minute to check up on you... "  
She glanced to me with a small and weak smile before I finally lay back, but not without finishing.  
''You're not the only one who cares, Abigail...  
''I know...'' With that, the door shut and we both went back to our own worlds.


End file.
